Abstract
The article presents an in-depth case study of the participatory National Education Conference (CONAE), held in 2010, and its influence over the financing model of the National Education Plan 2014/2024 (Law No. 13,005). CONAE can be considered a case of success in influencing policy because the financing model for the PNE goals and its instrument - initial Student-Quality Cost - gained the status of Law against the preferences of the federal executive power, which support coalition was majority in Congress, substantially expanding the financial responsibilities of the Union and making them enforceable. The aim of this article is to identify and describe the functioning of the causal mechanisms at working in the transformation of CONAE policy recommendations into law. It is shown that it is politics, or rather, causal mechanisms regularly activated by political actors–and not the properties of conferences’ institutional design or participation within them–which explains the incorporation of recommendations into law projects and, eventually, in sanctioned law. Conferences gained centrality in the literature because they were identified as a notable case of participation effectiveness on a macro scale beyond the electoral channels due to their capacity to inform and influence laws. Such connection remained established, but not satisfactorily explained.
participatory national conferences; education; financing; effectiveness; participatory institutions